Other Fees and Making a Payment

L&Q charges management fees to all residents paying a service charge. These fees help towards the costs we incur delivering services to you, your property and scheme. The costs include paying for the staff and departments at L&Q who provide you with a service. Our right to charge management fees is set out in the terms of your lease or freehold transfer agreement.

We have improved the way we set out management fees recently so that they reflect an accurate contribution towards our running costs and represent the best value for money.

You may now see two entries on your service charge statement:

L&Q admin fee
This is a fixed amount of £70 per year which contributes towards our central services, which may include the following operational costs:

Learning and Development and Human Resources departments

Revenue teams

IT equipment

Service charge accounting throughout the year

New contract procurement and existing contract management

This admin fee does not change in accordance with any other expenditure and remains constant for the year.

Sinking funds

Depending on the terms of your lease, you may contribute towards a sinking fund as part of your service charge.

We hold sinking fund contributions on your behalf to offset the cost of long term major work at the estate, scheme or block where you live. Work could include redecoration of communal areas, or replacement of facilities such as lifts, door entry systems or electronic gates.

We work out an appropriate amount for your contribution to the sinking fund. This is based on the expected life cycle of the facilities you have access to at your home. We review contribution rates from time to time, usually after a cycle of major work has taken place. This is to make sure they remain relevant and reasonable.

Ground rent

You may be required to pay ground rent under the terms of your lease. If ground rent is due to L&Q, as your landlord, we will send you a separate notice for this. If it is due to another landlord, ie the freeholder of the estate where you live, the ground rent will be payable via your service charges. It will show as an itemised line on your statements.

Variable service charge deficit

Your final service charge statement shows a year-end balance. This is either a credit in your favour or a debit to pay. If the balance was a credit, we'll apply this to your L&Q account. If you had a debit balance, we will bring this forward and spread the cost across 12 months from the new financial year in April.

We introduced this way of clearing final balances to let L&Qs homeowners settle outstanding amounts interest-free and in an affordable way. If you have a deficit balance to pay, it is itemised on the first page of the notice we have sent you.

Making payments

You can pay your monthly charges to L&Q by Direct Debit, standing order, internet banking or telephone. If you want to change the way you pay your service charges, please call L&Q Direct. If you would like to use internet banking or set up a standing order, our bank account details are:Bank: Barclays Bank PlcAccount name: L&Q RentsAccount Number: 10600261Sort code: 20-98-57
Please quote your Account Ref as shown on the first page of your notice. If you have difficulty in paying your monthly charges, please contact us as soon as possible. We can then discuss a payment plan with you.